REVIEW

“GRAND features some of Graeme Murphy's most inventive choreography.”GRAND is indeed a grand event - not grandiose nor pompous - for the sheer beauty, joy and invention, of music, dance and design. The grand piano is the stimulus from which all action unfolds in choreographer Graeme Murphy's tribute to the instrument, which is so central to the ballet studio.
Under the dextrous hands of pianist Scott Davies, we are treated to everything from robust oom-pah-pah waltzes to the delicacy of Debussy's Des pas sur la neige, the harsh strangeness of Henry Cowell's Banshee, and familiar strains from Fats Waller and George Gershwin. There is a brief respite when the dancers take over, unable to resist a go at that golden oldie Chopsticks.Bach's Aria from the Goldberg Variations opens and closes the work, occasionally recurring throughout. As the limpid notes drop into darkness, our eyes discern a cloaked figure, walking, pausing, sinking. Somehow, there seems to be a perfect synthesis between sound, movement and the exquisite folds of the multi-petalled cloak the dancer is enfolded in - the sounds emanating from an invisible piano. It is a simple but moving homage.What follows is some of Murphy's most beautiful and inventive choreography. Despite a constant flow of ideas, he allows time for them to emerge, to pause as if in contemplation of what has unfolded. Dancers pass by, through and around, hook and support each other in seemingly impossible cantilevered poses. Akira Isogawa's delicate gauze costumes wrap, float and extend the lines of movement, captured and framed by Damien Cooper's painstakingly precise lighting design. Set designer Gerard Manion keeps the piano as centerpiece, but shapes the space with a screen and mirror, adding dimension and intrigue.Amid the beauty, Murphy cannot resist some fun and frolic. The delicate mood takes a sharp right-hand turn into eisteddfod territory, with Andrea Briody, Tracey Carrodus and Joshua Consandine strutting their stuff, in dances predictable and bizarre. Katie Ripley is wafted aloft in full screen-goddess mode to the strains of Gershwin, and new multi-talented company member Connor Dowling bursts into song.
Reviewer Hilary Crampton - The Age

11 July 2005